Dance and Little Girls
Broward schools to consider cuts to arts, music, physical education classes
What a bunch of bullshit! our kids are forced into a freaking FCAT box, we take away gym, music and art, and we wonder why our kids are fat, lazy and have no imagination? Idiots.
Read MoreBroward schools to consider cuts to arts, music, physical education classes
Elementary programs face big changes next yearFacing huge cuts in state money, Broward’s public elementary schools next year could see major changes to their art, music, physical education and library programs.
Under a proposal the Broward School Board will discuss Tuesday, the district’s 140 elementary schools will have four options for how it handles those non-core classes.
The choices: Four schools in the same zone would share a media specialist along with an art, music and physical education teacher; electives would be incorporated into classroom teachers’ daily lessons; teachers of electives would be required to teach two classes at once, with the help of an aide; or specialty teachers would serve as consultants to their colleagues on how to incorporate electives into the curriculum.
School Board members were told last month the district could lose $80 million to $100 million in state money and have to make up for $60 million in one-time money spent in last year’s budget. Board members are supposed to see proposals for cuts in the coming weeks.
Other changes being discussed Tuesday include using a school’s size to revise staffing numbers for administrators and guidance counselors; and again eliminating extensions under the Deferred Retirement Option Program. The state retirement program allows teachers to extend their retirement date three years. Broward stopped granting them last year, affecting 233 teachers and school support staff. It prompted a lawsuit from the Broward Teachers Union that the union eventually lost.
Tuesday’s debate on elementary electives will include a proposal that schools supplement arts and music education with virtual field trips, video conferences, the Student Enrichment in the Arts partnership with the Broward Center for Performing Arts and other options.
That portion of the discussion is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at the school district’s Fort Lauderdale headquarters, 600 SE Third Ave.
Laurie Firestone, of Coral Springs, has a son in the second grade at Maplewood Elementary School, which has already scaled back library time to once a week, art to once a week, and music and physical education to every other week.
She said teachers won’t have time to build electives into their regular lesson plans, so students likely would go without. “All they’re doing is studying for the FCAT,” she said.
Blame budget cuts and the state Legislature, said School Board Chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb.
“They are scraping us to the bare bone. It’s been that way for the past few years,” she said. “Until the state starts to adequately fund public education, these are the conversations we unfortunately have to have.”
But other board members wonder whether there are other areas to consider cutting.
Board member Robin Bartleman suggested scaling back work calendars of new administrators, or looking at district contracts to see whether there are programs that aren’t worth renewing.
“Those music classes, those art classes … you can’t take that stuff away from kids,” Bartleman said. “Sometimes that’s the only thing that’s sparking the interest of the kid.”
Kathy Bushouse can be reached at kbushouse@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4556.
Copyright © 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Brand New Oak Meadow First Grade Curriculum from 2005, unused
https://www.oakmeadow.com/store/orderitem.cfm?rec_no=17
Read MoreThis curriculum continues the imaginative mood set in Kindergarten, but expands to include the lower case alphabet, phonetic studies, and beginning reading. Stories are used to learn the numbers to 100 and the four processes of math. Children explore the world of nature through experiential activities. Throughout are fairy tales, poetry, songs, recorder playing, knitting, painting, and drawing.
Actual news…
I don’t have much. Which is why you’ve been getting late Twitter updates and nothing else. I’ve even been avoiding the news and other blogs.
Channukah is almost here! First of all, my yearly link ;) Anyone else celebrating it? It’s early this year, Dec 11! My dad is going out of town the next day, for the weekend, so we’ll be doing it up big the first night I think.
Sara wants to make sufgoniyot (jelly doughnuts) this year, because you know we have to get fat to celebrate the miracle of finding oil
I need to make latkes – last year my uncle made some with spinach and feta and I think I might get his recipe this year. They sounded delish.
We’ll celebrate Yule this year as well, but I haven’t really thought about what we’re going to do just yet. Channukah looms large on the horizon :-) Brisket, latkes, sufgonyot, latkes, latkes, latkes…. mmmm latkes.
Speaking of Channukah, we had adult Hebrew school this morning (the Rabbi runs it once a month while the kids are in) and today was… Channukah! Quelle Suprise! I always feel so smart when we leave, because I know what he is talking about :-) We also spoke with another Rabbi and took care of HS tuition (which we can’t afford right now) and I was going to pull the kids out, but they will remain, and I will let them know when we have our feet back under us. I know I bitch about Chabad… I don’t feel like I belong there, like we are Jew-y “enough” to be there, and that we have to cover up (which I would do anyway, it’s the proper thing to do – I jsut resent *having* to do it) but those are *my* issues and they have never, never turned anyone away and I can get behind that. Recently a homeless Jewish man died in the community and they took up collection to bury him in the Jewish part of the local cemetary – his family wanted nothing to do with him. Things like that make me feel good about being connected to them. I might not be Jew enough in my own eyes, when compared to the ultra Orthodox there, but good people are good people regardless of faith. They are good people. I offered my graphic design skills in barter, but I know they have someone who does that already. I don’t really have any other skills to offer, so… I offered what I could.
If you are looking for someplace to donate to this season, and don’t care if it doesn’t match your faith, please consider donating to Chabad of Coral Springs (and please make your donation in memory of Phyllis Johnpoll). If your faith does matter, please consider Delrey School (please make it in Erin Johnpoll’s name) or UCP directly (this does not directly benefit Delrey school, again, please make your donation in Erin’s name). None of those make you feel good about yourself? Please pick any charity you desire and send them at least a few dollars. If you give back to the Universe, the Universe gives back to you.
In other news, I lost my shit with the kids yesterday. Their room is still a mess, as is the living room. They will be cleaning today before we do anything fun. Oh yes, they will. The dogs have fleas. I got Program tabs and Capstar tabs and once they arrive they will be administered, the house will be flea bombed and hopefully they will stay uninfested for a long while.
Today is a laundry day, joy! Not so much. I wish the mail came today. I am expecting a check. I need to give dad back 155$ (for the flea pills), set some aside for our dinner, buy Dorian some shirts, buy two new bike seats and two water bottle holders. I think it should stretch far enough to do that :-)
I need to get back into writing every day.
Read MoreFish in Tefillin aka Jewish Bondage (totally safe for work)
So Jews have something called Tefillin. If you want to read about it you can go here: http://www.jewfaq.org/signs.htm#Tefillin
Suffice to say, it’s a mitzvah to be wrapped in these strips of leather and say a few prayers. It takes like 3 minutes and SuperJews do it every day. Oh, only the boys.
The first time the Rabbi got Michael to do it, he took a picture and we joked it would never make it onto the wall. (We always cover up when we go there). Lo and behold, his photo, tattoos and all, is on the wall.
Here are the ones we took on Sunday.
Just a novella of an update
Grabbed from Punky Moms, hence the formatting. Mostly for my own records too.
First, hello to all our new members! I think I hit all the intros to welcome you in, but I’m not totally sure. I’ve barely been on the computer lately at all, let alone on here, and some things just slip by me. I’m Jenn. I live in South Florida. It’s hot and it’s humid and it’s home. I have three biological kids – Dorian is 9, Malachai is 7 and Eshiva is 4. I also have my siblings who I look after, they are both 17. My husband is a member on here and has also been missing. Rev Fish is a tattoo artist, movie junkie and avid reader. I am a stay at home mom, although all of my brood is in school this year, so I’ve been trying to fill my time a little more. It hasn’t worked so far.
On to the “why the fuck haven’t you been around Jenn, hmm??” post.
Mostly I’ve been reading. Or drawing. Or been out with Michael.
Last week I fought with an external hard drive all freaking week. It worked fine for a while, and suddenly my Mac decided it didn’t want to play with the PC. So I bought a new drive, which also didn’t want to play. Finally I gave in and spent *more* on a Mac formatted drive (this is fucking stupid, as I formatted the other one the exact same way) and may lightning strike me if it didn’t work first time out. So… of course the PC didn’t want to play. Not that any of you care, but I wound up partitioning off a bunch of space and formatted it as MS-DOS and left the rest as Mac journaled and viola, magic I can easily move my files around.
Today we tried to hit the gym this morning, but the guy we had to speak with wasn’t there and things had changed since last time. Like there not being built in locks in the lockers. So we packed in and went to a local park and walked the park. I think it was about a mile, maybe more? Not bad. I kept up with Michael’s walking stride, which paced me slightly faster than my “Disney” walking pace (which is faster than my normal pace). Came home and fucked around for a while and then went back to the gym b/c the guy we needed to chat with was there. Signed up for a 30 day free trial and picked up the kids, picked up some locks from the store (for the lockers, duh) and now we’re home and they are bitching and moaning about their homework.
Malachai has been more needy than normal. I spoke with his OT and was told it didn’t sound neurological (good) and to teach him to fly a kite. O_o I don’t get this one at all. Something to get him active, but specifically a kite? So now I need to find a freaking kite when it isn’t really kite season.
Sara and Michael and taking drivers ed. Sara hit a cone, twice, while trying to park (the same cone, I might mention). I told her how awful, she killed that poor cone. She told me to teach her how to park. I laughed and explained that I can parallel park like a pro but pulling into a space? Not so much. Lucky for me when I took my drivers test a million years ago at the end, when it came time to park, there was a spot directly in front of where I exited the driver test course. Then I yelled at her to watch out for cones, they like to jump in front of cars ;)
Speaking of a million years ago, my birthday is next month. I got to wondering if that is why I suddenly wanted to go back to school (not for a career, just because, so I can’t justify it) or find something to do. I don’t think it is, but it was interesting timing. I feel like I’ve been floating through my days without a destination in mind. Am I going to wake up and be 60 or 80 and wonder what the fuck I did with my life? Scary thought, that. So, I need to find something to do. Ideas accepted! Something to do can be anything. I don’t want to spend all day at the gym (I never get that endorphin rush, so it’s just work to me, nothing to make me truly want to go back for the sake of going back). I don’t want to take pictures of grass all day long. I just don’t know.
So, that’s my novella. I spend my time running around to therapy and bowling and dance class and school and everything in between.
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